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Monday, August 06, 2012

DNC Platform To Include Marriage Equality?

What’s this? I’m just back from a brief, albeit lovely,
vacation, to find that the Democrats seem poised to endorse a Gay Marriage
plank for their convention platform.

First things first. For the love of Gaga let’s stop calling
it “gay” marriage. It’s Marriage Equality. I mean, are the marriages that are
legally allowed now called Straight Marriages? No. It’s Marriage Equality.

Equality, people.

Anyway, while the Democrats may make this move, as of now
neither the DNC nor the Obama campaign wanted to talk about. And I say they should.
I mean, Obama talked about it a couple of months ago; it’s a hot button issue
and needs to be discussed and debated and the passed.

Right now just six of fifty states have marriage equality,
while three more have legalization measures on their fall ballots, but it’s still
one of those touchy subjects. And, you know how to make a subject less touchy,
less kind of hot button? Talk.About.It. Endorse it. Make it happen.

And, if the party adds marriage equality to its platform
during the convention, it will be a symbolic victory for LGBT on all sorts of fronts,
one of which is that the convection will be in Charlotte, North Carolina this
year. Y’all remember that it was North Carolina, stepping back in time earlier this
year, which passed a referendum banning marriage equality, so this would be nice to see
happen up there.

The 15-member Democratic Party platform draft committee
unanimously approved the pro-equality marriage language and then sent the
platform draft to the full platform committee, which meets in Detroit in two
weeks. And most on the committee believe it will be added, though former
congressman, Travis Childers, a Mississippi Democrat, says the so-called Blue
Dog Democrats like himself would be hesitant to support pro-marriage equality
language.

“It is not something that I would agree with, that part of the
platform,” Childers said. “I think the conservative Democrats, especially in
the South, a great number will disagree with that.”

Well, Southerners need to build a bridge and get over it. They
were against interracial marriage and now that happens all the time. They
fought tooth-and-nail against the Civil Rights movement and look how that
worked out. Do Southerners really need to continue looking backwards, and
looking like backwards morons?

And while Obama’s team isn’t saying much, they actually are saying
something quite plainly: Clo Ewing, campaign spokeswoman, says, “The
president’s personal views on marriage equality are known. [He] and the party are
committed to crafting a platform that reflects the president’s positions and
the values of the party.”

Mittsy Romney, liar, panderer, flip-flopper, and international disaster,
has no comment. It’s believed his foot is still wedged in his mouth after his
less than stellar trip abroad.

But we don’t need Mittsy. We have a president who supports
equality and we have a majority of Americans—and the numbers grow daily—who want
the same thing too.